And that’s fine. It reflects the beauty of this country, where readers can ponder a wide assortment of views from others and then form their own opinions.

Sometimes they cheer what’s written. Other times, they’re outraged.

It is a dilemma that I welcome.

One unique perspective was shared last Sunday in this space. In a column headlined “Nation Needs a New Agenda on Guns,” Donald Kaul tackled the subject in a strident manner familiar to many readers who recall his long tenure as a Register columnist. He is now a freelance writer who neither works for us nor takes direction from Register editors.

In case you missed it, Kaul lashed out at President Obama, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the National Rifle Association and “weak-kneed politicians” for their genteel response to the Connecticut shooting.

“The thing missing from the debate so far,” he said, “is anger.”

Kaul offered a few steps that could end gun violence — from repealing a section of the Second Amendment and declaring the NRA a terrorist organization to making ownership of unlicensed assault rifles a felony.

He also suggested tying Republicans Mitch McConnell and John Boehner to the back of a pickup truck “until they see the light” for the need to address gun control.

In his last paragraph, Kaul acknowledges his views are preposterous. “None of that is going to happen, of course,” he wrote.

But many readers either didn’t make it that far in his column or were too angry to see his less-than-artful attempt at satire.

And for that, we take blame.

At a time when our nation still grieves over the massacre of 26 victims at a Connecticut school and is ensnared in a contentious debate focused on gun ownership, a ban on the sale of assault weapons and the Second Amendment, the Register needed to be more thoughtful in how it handled Kaul’s column.

It didn’t get the careful critique from us that it deserved. We should have tempered the rhetoric and insisted his views be a bit crisper so they weren’t misconstrued for condoning violence.

I regret those missteps. And while there certainly was no attempt to be reckless, I’m sorry if it may have offended you. It shows how the use of satire on such a sensitive issue can lead to confusion for the very readers we value. We will keep that lesson front-and-center in the future.

But I fervently hope there is something we can agree upon: Ten days before Christmas Eve, 20 little kids in a Connecticut classroom were savagely mowed down in a firestorm of bullets and unbridled violence. All of us — from the White House and Congress to media pundits and the NRA — must urgently and thoughtfully discuss what must be done to prevent that heartbreaking scene from unfolding again.

I know you expect the Register to be a responsible player in that conversation. I promise you we will.